Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Last night Perfume held a live broadcast to celebrate the 8th anniversary of their debut on a major label.
The program was scheduled to be broadcast from 09:00 P.M. - 10:30 P.M. Japan Time. However, the program actually went over by about 20~minutes or so.

During the main portion of the broadcast open to everyone, Perfume discussed their upcoming costume exhibit. They spoke with one of the designers who, inspired by Perfume, designed a number of outfits that looked straight out of a trendy, scientific, Yasutaka-Nakata envisioned future. Seeing as it was inspired from Perfume, you can get a gist of how the outfits will look without even having seen the stream. PTA members in Japan can see the exhibit for free.

Afterwards, there was a bit on Nocchi's birthday and the girls revealed the new album releasing very soon, Level3. They showed off the three types of limited edition jackets in clear, yellow, and red, as well as the regular edition. Sadly, for those of us overseas there isn't a way to choose which color we get if we place an order online. At least it takes away the grueling process of having to decide for myself! (A~chan chose pink, Kashiyuka the clear, and Nocchi sort of default chose yellow since it was the only color left that the other two didn't like)

When the public broadcast finished, after about 30 minutes, they switched to the PTA member only portion split into three segments.
First, Perfume requested fans to submit their own trivia questions to the group on their major career so far. If the girls couldn't answer the question, they sent the PTA member who submitted it a small sticker. At first they were nailing questions left and right and then came a long series of misses. Some of the questions they answered were "Where did you hear about Game making it to no.1 on the Oricon Charts?" and "Where did you decide on the name PTA?". Some of the crazier questions were "What month has a Perfume release never been released since the debut?" or "What color bags were each of you holding during the One Room Disco PV?" Stuff like that is entirely beyond me...and the three of them as well! They were especially distraught when they didn't know the venue where they held a Christmas concert 8 years ago as well as confusing the 8th song they performed at their last concert in Tokyo Dome(really?????). Some really great, yet near impossible to remember questions. You can't really hold it to them for not knowing!

The second event was a user submitted photo contest. Fan Club members were tasked with replicating the artwork of a Perfume CD to the best of their ability. Eight fantastic pieces were selected. Some did their own interpretations while others stuck to faithfully replicating to the finest detail a Perfume cover of their choice:

Mirai Museum - It was just taken with a dance studio as a back drop, but these three nailed the look, dress, and most importantly that iconic pose!
Macaroni - I guess there isn't a Macaroni cover art, but they did film three girls standing against a great backdrop with a look very similar to that warm, nostalgic tint in the PV
Spice - the winner! Spice limited edition art replicated perfectly - except the three in the photo wore cold masks XD
Voice - The Limited Edition cover: yes, three girls were up to the task to show nothing but their legs! They mentioned that it took them quite some time and they had a bunch of falls, trips, etc. while trying to replicate it exactly. Great effort in the end.
Kashiyuka even mentioned that they wore the exact same shoes that Perfume wore in the cover and all three agreed the submitters had nice legs XD
JPN - a little girl dressed up in a JP inspired outfit and posed against the backdrop of the letters JPN. awww. She did Kashiyuka especially well!
Magic of Love - Someone made small Perfume toy dolls and posed them and painted them according to the cover art. They looked like the Russian Matryoshka dolls.
Spring of Life - A male member did this entirely himself: modeling, photo editing, photography, etc. ! A replication of the limited edition CD+DVD cover.
love the world - regular edition of the love the world single done by a male fan - except he donned a kitsune mask.

Lastly, the girls reviewed a survey they conducted at their concerts(I think so, anyways) that asked which goods fans would be most interested in having. There was a list of the top ten items people would like to see from the Perfume store:

The number was, perhaps not so surprising, Perfume! Yes, fans most requested that Perfume develop their own line of Perfume. Now that would make a lot of sense. I seriously did not think it would escalate to number one on the list, though!

The broadcast ended about 20 minutes later than scheduled but it was a lot of fun. As for the actual video of the broadcast, I have no idea where it would be on the internet but I'm sure someone has a copy of it for viewing somewhere. I'm fortunate that the time difference between where I am and Japan is just an hour so watching their livestreams isn't such a chore as it would be if I was half way across the world. To those that do tune in from different hemisphere, I salute you guys!

You can still get your pre-orders in for their new album, Level3, at CDJapan: